Frequently Asked Questions

No, and we're upfront about it. We don't run a test lab or own most of the gear we write about. What we do is compile the manufacturers' published specifications, cross-check them, do the buyer-relevant math, and rank for what helps you buy. Our full method — and what we deliberately don't do — is on our How We Review page.

Through affiliate links. If you buy through a link on our site, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. It never changes which product we recommend — see our Affiliate Disclosure for the full details.

No. We rank for the buyer, not the payout. When a cheaper option is the smarter buy, that's our top pick, even though a pricier product would earn us more. The reasoning on every page is the same whether a link earns us anything or not.

Prices are pulled automatically from Amazon on a daily basis and carry the date they were last checked. Prices change constantly, so always confirm the current price on the retailer's page before buying. Where we don't have a live price, we show 'Check price' rather than a number we can't stand behind.

Because we only display a price when we have a current, verified one. If a product's live price isn't available at the moment — it may be temporarily out of stock or between price checks — we link you to the retailer to see the current price rather than show a stale figure.

For the vast majority of people, APS-C is the sweet spot: a large, capable sensor in a smaller, cheaper body with affordable lenses. Full-frame gathers a little more light and gives shallower blur, but it costs far more, in bodies and especially lenses. See our How to Choose a Camera guide.

No. Beyond about 20-24 megapixels, more resolution rarely improves your photos and can hurt low-light performance. Sensor size, autofocus and the lens matter far more than megapixel count.

Audio, then lighting. Viewers forgive rough video long before bad sound, so a decent microphone is the biggest jump in perceived quality — see our best microphones for YouTube. Good lighting is a close second. Both cost less than a new camera.

Usually a lens. The lens changes your images more than the body does. A mid-range camera with one good fast prime lens often looks better than an expensive body on a cheap kit zoom. Start with our portrait lens guide for the best first upgrade.

For a new buyer, mirrorless — that's where every maker is developing new lenses and features. A used DSLR can still be a great budget bargain, but you're buying into a system that's winding down. See our Mirrorless vs DSLR guide.

A card rated V30 (Video Speed Class 30) comfortably handles 4K on almost every creator camera, and it's far cheaper than faster UHS-II cards. You only need V60 or V90 for high-bitrate professional modes. See our SD card guide.

That's for you to judge — which is why we're transparent about our method. Every spec traces to a manufacturer source, every price to a live check, and every recommendation is reasoned on the page. Analytical, buyer-side synthesis is a real form of expertise, and we present it honestly as exactly that.

We review our main guides regularly — checking that picks are still sold, prices are live, and no newer model has replaced a recommendation. We update a page's 'last updated' date only when its content genuinely changes.

Tell us. We correct factual errors promptly, and where a correction changes a recommendation we note it on the page. Use our Contact page — we'd rather be corrected than be wrong.

Yes. Wide Open Gear covers the whole creator kit: cameras, lenses, lighting, audio, streaming gear, accessories and editing hardware. Creator audio in particular is a focus, because the camera-focused sites tend to ignore it.

It's written by Stephen V., an enthusiast who reads the manuals and does the math — not a paid reviewer or a test lab. The site is published by Type 5 Marketing LLC. Learn more on our About page.